Do you have a door that constantly swings open even if you leave it cracked just a little? Well, there’s an easy fix. We’ll teach you how to fix a door that swings open by itself – just keep reading.
Most of the time a door swings open by itself due to the door frame being out of plumb. This can be a quite common occurrence in an older home that has done a bit of settling. Our house had foundation issues before we moved in, so I’ve had to repair quite a few freely swinging doors.
To fix a door that swings open by itself, you could take the time to disassemble the entire door and frame, and then rehang it ensuring it was plumb. Though that could take hours, this technique takes about five minutes.
Tools you’ll need
- Hammer
- An old flat head screwdriver
- A wooden shim, or just a piece of paper
That’s it.
Step 1: Shim the door in place
Close the door and wedge your shim between the door and the frame. If you don’t have a shim, just fold a piece of paper or cardboard and use that instead. The shim just helps hold the door in place when you take out the hinge pin so it is easier to get the hinge pin back in.
Step 2: Remove the top hinge pin
Removing hinge pins is simple, just slide your flat head screwdriver under the lip and bang the bottom of the screwdriver with a hammer until the pin slides out. For now, we’re only removing and modifying the top hinge pin.
A lot of people will tell you that using your screwdriver in this manner is abuse of your screwdriver, but I’m not that overly particular about some of my older ones anyway.
Step 3: Bend the pin
Yes, you read that right. You need to bend the hinge pin. You don’t need a major bend, maybe just a nice 5 to 10 degree bend near the middle. You can pull the pin all of the way out, put it in a vise, and then bang it with a hammer. Though I tend to just pull the pin 75% of the way out of the hinge and then give it 2 good whacks with the hammer. This is usually enough to get an appropriate bend in it.
Step 4: Reinsert the pin
Once you have the pin bent, hammer it back into the hinge.
Now remove the shim and test the door. If the door still swings open by itself, repeat the process on the bottom hinge.
* This post may have affiliate links, which means I may receive commissions if you choose to purchase through links I provide (at no extra cost to you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for supporting the work I put into this site.